NJMEP FAQ's

NJMEP Energy Alliance FAQ's

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Aggregation is the term used to describe the process by which individual electricity users form an alliance for energy-buying leverage. In an aggregation pool, companies band together to combine each of their smaller energy purchase demands or loads into a single larger load.

The program will allow manufacturing businesses located in New Jersey to join together to form an alliance to purchase electricity as a group. The intent of the alliance is to secure better contract terms and pricing than individual members could procure on their own.

NJMEP has partnered with Concord Energy Services (CES), a licensed New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, Energy Consultant and Private Aggregator to provide professional consulting aggregator services for the program. As the aggregator, CES will work with members and negotiate the best possible deal on behalf of the Alliance. It is important to emphasize that this program covers only the power supply portion of your electric bill. Under New Jersey’s retail choice regulations, you may purchase power supply from the electric utility under its Basic Generation Service (“BGS”) tariff rates, or you may purchase your power supply from a third party supplier. Many small to medium size manufacturing businesses have not switched to a third party supplier; therefore such businesses simply obtain their power supply from the utility “supplier” as they always have. Importantly, the delivery and distribution of electricity under this program will continue to remain the same, through the regulated utility that serves your business. The utility will continue to handle your account, addressing any outages and maintaining service. The only thing that will change is the cost of the electricity provided.

“Energy Deregulation” refers to New Jersey legislation passed in 1999 that separates the provision of energy as a competitive arena from its distribution, which remains in the hands of the regulated utilities which have a monopoly on the “pipes and wires” that deliver the energy to your home or business. This means that companies are now free to compete to generate electricity (or supply natural gas), and consumers are free to choose who to buy it from.

No. There will be no cross-subsidization between participating members.

Power outages are not under the control of the third party supplier. The delivery system is still under the utility’s control, and there is no difference in delivery services whether you purchase the power supply from a third party supplier or from the utility under its tariff. In the event of an outage, you would still contact your local utility.

No. As stated above the delivery system is still under the utility’s control, and there is no difference in delivery services whether you purchase the power supply from a third party supplier or from utility under its tariff. The utility obtains its power supply for customers from third party wholesale suppliers, and they pass the costs of those contracts through at cost, without a mark‐up. As a result, the utility is financially unaffected by whether you buy power supply from it or a third party supplier. In addition, the utility is regulated by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, whose service reliability rules prevent such discrimination in service restoration based upon who the power supplier is. The service restoration criteria do not take into account the identity of the power supplier.

Your solar system produces electricity that offsets the amount of power you need to purchase from the power grid. Your total electric consumption less your solar energy produced on your facility equals your ‘residual’ electricity needs purchased from the power grid. Under the program, the aim will be to lower the price for those ‘residual’ energy purchases. As such, having a solar system does not preclude you from participating. If your solar system is particularly large relative to the electric usage in your facility, and offsets a majority of your usage to the point where you are “banking” kilowatt hours in a given month (i.e. in some months your solar system produces more electricity than you use), you may want to consider remaining outside the program.

The consulting fees are factored into the prices being bid by suppliers. The consultant receives a fraction of a penny per kilowatt hour, and this fee is embedded in the price being bid; therefore the savings on bid day are actual savings, inclusive of all costs to run the program.

Absolutely not. The time to act is now and businesses who do not may put themselves at a competitive disadvantage.

Businesses can aggregate their electric demand by joining an aggregation program such as NJMEP Energy Alliance.

Yes. Participating members can always leave the program but must remain with the contracted third party supplier through the end of the contract term. Any purchases made on behalf of the member under the program will be carried out through the end of the contract term.

Electricity contracts are about more than just price – they are about risk management. CES’s proven competitive process minimizes risks for all parties, resulting in better pricing.

The member must complete the term on any existing contract for electricity supply before starting service with this program. You will have the opportunity to join even if your existing contract expires within the next six (6) months. Your effective start date will be upon the expiration of your existing contract.

NJMEP has distinct features that are not widely available in the marketplace:

  • Proven Performance: CES’s staff has negotiated contracts for millions of dollars in New Jersey, saving its customers over $25 million.
  • No Cross Subsidization: We use a unique methodology to avoid cross-subsidization of savings, meaning that you receive the full benefit of your load profile instead of an average benefit available to all members of an aggregation.
  • No Surprises: Members know their total electric costs at all times, meaning that members are fully informed and can make rational business judgments.

Please visit the following link below for more details:
NJMEP Energy Alliance Program Enrollment

You may contact your NJMEP Field Agent and/or Concord Engineering Group. Both companies are available via email or telephone for questions. Concord Energy Services Representative contacts are listed below: